Yamaha patents 'fake' engine for electric motorcycles
Yamaha has patented a unique means of overcoming motorcyclists’ resistance to electric vehicles.
Yamaha appears to be developing an electric motorcycle that is equipped with a functionally superfluous engine - there simply to make you forget you’re riding an electric vehicle.
That’s what we’re understanding, at least, from a recent patent filed by the Japanese manufacturer.
Starting with the premise that internal combustion engines are awesome, the patent seeks an entirely unique solution to the problem that numerous electric motorcycle makers have come up against. Namely, that many people don’t like the idea of riding an electric motorcycle.
With a traditional, emissions-spitting, petrol-powered motorcycle, the patent observes, riders “feel a sense of excitement when they experience the sounds and vibrations that occur in response to their accelerator operation.”
The smooth, earth-friendly zoom of an electric vehicle just doesn’t get the old boys’ hearts going, Yamaha seems to think. So, it appears to have created a “fake” engine that feels like a “real” one.
Now, at this point I’m going to tell you that the World Intellectual Property Organization reference for this patent is: WO/2025/191637. Feel free to go dig through the patent’s voluminous technical speak if you want to try to gain a full understanding of what’s happening here. I’ll admit that it makes my head hurt and I’m not 100-percent sure that I’m understanding things correctly.
BUT, if I’ve got the right end of the stick, the reason I put the words ‘fake’ and ‘real’ in quotes above is that this IS a real engine, it just doesn’t run on fossil fuels and it doesn’t have any purpose other than to shake and make noise.
It appears that the bike’s electric drive motor - in addition to putting power to the wheel - spins a crankshaft that runs a four-stroke engine that sucks in air, moves pistons about, and spits said air out of an exhaust pipe. All of that replicating the sound and feel of the powerplants that have been driving motorcycles for more than a century.
“Pressure fluctuations in the air caused by the reciprocating movement of the piston in the cylinder generate compression waves with high and low pressure areas in the intake pipe, the exhaust pipe, and the resonator,” says a Google-translated version of the patent (which is filed in Japanese). “The resonator amplifies the sound generated by the compression waves. This allows the power of the motor that drives the drive wheels to produce intake and exhaust sounds similar to those of a reciprocating engine.”
So, if I’m getting this right, sound and vibration should relate to the speed/aggressiveness of your riding. And the parent says that the whole set-up will be styled to look like it runs on a conventional engine. So, it looks, sounds, and feels like an ICE-powered bike but isn’t.
It’s novel and clever but also kind of… weird. Do we think this will work? Will THIS be the thing that finally converts the majority of riders to electric? If paired with reasonable range and quick charging, it might indeed be the answer.
But one can’t help feeling that it’s a bit like lab-created meat. Sure, it might look and taste the same as animal meat but, you know, it’s NOT the same. And the fact that it’s not, that it’s an intentional trick, feels unnerving in some way.
But, then, do any of us complain about the fake carbs on a Triumph Bonneville?
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Chris Cope is a fourth-generation journalist, originally from Texas. He has lived in the UK for roughly two decades and has been writing about motorcycles for most of that time. He has written for dozens of publications and websites in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
